conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

hmmm...interesting

You can read the whole article here. But this section grabbed my attention.

For the new pope, sacred music does not merely put the communicant in the right mood. Music, he believes, in a sense, becomes the communion, as he told Church musicians 20 years ago:

Faith becoming music is part of the process of the word becoming flesh …When the word becomes music, there is involved on the one hand perceptible illustration, incarnation or taking on flesh, attraction of pre-rational powers, a drawing upon the hidden resonance of creation, a discovery of the song which lies at the basis of all things. And so this becoming music is itself the very turning point in the movement: it involves not only the word becoming flesh, but simultaneously the flesh becoming spirit.

These are the words of a mystic, of a fisher of souls. His predecessor was that too, but more inclined to catch-and-release. John Paul II bestrode the stage like a rock star, chanting to youthful crowds, "Woo-hoo-woo! John Paul II, he loves you!" He shared a stage with Bob Dylan as well as "walk on the wild side" rocker Lou Reed. Benedict XVI has radically different views. Citing the same speech:

... Rock music seeks release through liberation from the personality and its responsibility ... [it is] among the anarchic ideas of freedom which today [1985] predominate more openly in the West than in the East. But that is precisely why rock music is so completely antithetical to the Christian concept of redemption and freedom, indeed its exact opposite. Hence music of this type must be excluded from the Church on principle, and not merely for aesthetic reasons, or because of restorative crankiness or historical inflexibility.

Classical music, he conceded, has "been forced back on all fronts into the position of a mere subculture". But even in the Western world we should not be frightened by the term "subculture". In the cultural crisis we are currently experiencing, new cultural purification and unification can break forth only from islands of spiritual composure.

It is a little late/early for me to have anything worthwhile to contribute, but it was a good read. I had not thought of the ideology of rock music being the trouble. So, what we have is a cultural war. Okay. Now, someone needs to tell the Christian Rock people. I wonder now if Christian Rock is really rock music after all.

Perhaps it ain't.

Music, like science, offers mere potential for good; the good is sui generis. For art to serve the good, the artist must first be good. Benedict XVI, as noted, stated that "reverence, receptivity and humility" characterize the musician whose art exalts rather than confuses the listener. Religion can engage art as its servant only after it has converted the artist.

Posted by tripp at May 28, 2005 03:03 AM